"Black" (Roses)

"At first glance, this piece does not look like it belongs in my catalog – floral pieces don’t usually scream rock and rebellion. It’s in the inspiration that this offering starts to make sense on why it could be a corner stone painting of a rock artist.    

It started as I was lying in the operating room for a recent surgery. My medical team was asking me about my tattoos and the conversation quickly turned to music. This ultimately led to them letting me pick a song to listen to as they did their final prep work and sent me off to sleep. I asked them to play one of my two favorite songs, “Black” by Pearl Jam or “Paint it Black” by the Stones. The last words I heard as I faded out were – “I guess we don’t need to ask your favorite colour”. The seed was planted with that statement.   While in recovery, I started thinking more about the exchange and about all the bands, albums and songs in rock music that referenced the colour black. I wanted to pay tribute to the colour and its prevalence in the rock genre – but it was extremely tough to conceptualize how to pay tribute to black.  

In yet another happy accident, I was simultaneously also trying to conceptualize a completely different piece based on starting new, or a rebirth, due to finally coming out of a very long health battle. I turned to Google to research images and ideas that may symbolize a rebirth, and to my pleasant surprise, the first page filled up with references to black roses as this symbol. It was perfect, I was able to combine a double meaning into a single work – and for the next month this piece “turned my world to black." - Stickman

About Stickman

Trevor "Stickman" Stickel specializes in musically based portraits that capture legendary moments, powerful ideas and raw emotion. His work is described as gritty-yet-fresh, complex-yet-simple. Graduating from a Jekyll and Hyde influence early in his career in which he divided his time between family portraits and design work on helmets and Harleys - Trevor had the epiphany to combine both styles while reading "According to the Rolling Stones". Two weeks later he finished his first canvas portrait of Mick Jagger that would thrust him into a different realm of the art world an aptly titled it "Please allow me to introduce myself".

The Mission

The idea or "mission" behind my artwork was to create an artistic tribute to something (music) and to the people (musicians) that have had a tremendous impact on me and basically shaped my world. Historically these tributes have been limited to photos/posters that have adorned the bedroom walls of teenagers and dorm rooms throughout adolescence. I wanted to create a style of art that brings these iconic figures back into our life, and do so in manner that we as adults can display proudly in our homes. When planning a piece I often imagine how the finished piece would look in a contemporary living room, dining room, lounge, etc.

The Concept

In order to achieve the mission stated above as well as explore my creative and artistic side, the idea of amalgamating different artistic disciplines on the same canvas was born. The concept is to take my portrait realism and juxtapose it with a background that expresses my feeling and emotions of the subject I'm painting. This method also allows me to explore other disciplines of art - many of my backgrounds will include Abstract, Expressionism, Impressionism, Realism, Pop Art, Street Art, Surrealism and quite often a combination of these. This is where I get to enjoy the artistic side of these pieces as well as paying additional homage to some of my favorite visual artists. My work is a true collaboration of music and art where I take a very influential subject matter and combine it with inspiration from artists such as Warhol, Bansky, Basquiat and Pollock to name just a few.